History of Ozone Synthesis and Use for Water Treatment

SAUMNPELSECCOH–AEPTOELSRSSOZONE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - History of Ozone Synthesis and Use for Water Treatment - S. Preis

HISTORY OF OZONE SYNTHESIS AND USE FOR WATER
TREATMENT

S. Preis
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

Keywords: white phosphorus, fluorine, silent (corona) discharge, dielectric barrier
discharge (DBD), electrochemical ozone formation, photochemical ozone formation

Contents

1. Ozone Generation
1. 1. 1839-1868
1. 2. 1869-1900
1. 2. 1. Electrical Discharge for Ozone Production
1. 2. 2. Electrolysis of Aqueous Solutions
1. 2. 3. Photochemical Formation of Ozone
1. 2. 4. Miscellaneous Chemical Methods
1. 3. 20th Century
1. 3. 1. Silent Discharge
1. 3. 2. Technical Achievements in Industrial Ozone Generation
2. Ozone Use for Water Treatment
2. 1. Solubility of Ozone in Water
2. 2. Disinfection Ability
2.3. Practical Applications
Glossary
Bibliography
Biographical Sketch

Summary

Unlike many other technologies, which started to be practiced by mankind much earlier
than their regularities were scientifically understood, ozone synthesis and application to
water treatment developed consistently on the basis of scientific findings. The way of
ozone synthesis and application development passed through the highly desired route:
discovery – study of properties – effective synthesis in amounts for full-scale
implementation – application. The ozone implementation in water treatment presents a
classical example of science meeting the growing requirements of the society based on
increasing knowledge. This paper gives a historical sketch of the development of ozone
studies in its synthesis and application to water treatment.

1. Ozone Generation

1. 1. 1839-1868

Ozone, first on March 13, 1839, reported to be a distinct chemical compound by
Christian Friedrich Schönbein (1799-1868), Professor of Chemistry at the University of

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Basel, was introduced to its applications after long years of studies of its properties in
Chemistry laboratories. Therefore, the history of ozone synthesis at the laboratory scale
machines starts long before the history of its applications. Among the processes
excreting ozone at its discovery days, the contact of air with phosphorus and some other
methods were not developed into the industrial scale procedures; “odour of electricity”
introduced by Martin van Marum (1750-1837), Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine,
working with his static electricity machine in Haarlem, Netherlands, remains an
attribute of the contemporary ozone synthesis in gaseous discharge and electrolysis
techniques.

The very first electric machine used purposely as ozone generator was, most probably,
the Grove cell acquired by Schönbein by summer 1838 in Basel, although he reported
the characteristic ozone odour produced not only by the electrolysis of water at the
clean gold or platinum positive electrode, but also by an arc between electrodes
separated by air. The Grove cell invented by about the same time (1839) was an early
electric primary cell named after its inventor, British chemist William Robert Grove
(1811-1896), and consisted of a zinc anode in dilute sulphuric acid and a platinum
cathode in concentrated nitric acid, the two separated by a porous ceramic pot. The
Grove cell was the favoured power source of the early American telegraph system in the
period 1840 – 1860 and was replaced in use by other sources due to discharged
poisonous nitric acid gas and unstable voltage.

The three methods described by Schönbein, arcing air or oxygen, electrolysing aqueous
acid solutions, and exposing phosphorus to moist air, were all used by researchers in the
early days of ozone studies. The most convenient of these at early days was the
phosphorus reaction. Thus, Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac (1817-1894), Professor
of Chemistry at the Academy of Geneva, described a simple tubular continuous flow
apparatus filled with pieces of white phosphorus in which air was passed through. The
resulting gas was washed with water and dried before use. Otto Linné Erdmann (1804-
1869), Professor at the University of Leipzig, used the gas resulting from the flask
containing water with pieces of white phosphorus directly for discolouration of indigo
aqueous solution without washing and drying. Richard Felix Marchand (1813-1850),
Professor of Chemistry at the University of Halle obtained ozone from phosphorus in
contact with dry oxygen, giving another proof of the allotropic nature of ozone.

Due to the limited capacity of ozone production, the use of phosphorus gradually
declined: at best the phosphorus reaction produced ozone concentrations of much less
than 1%. The electrochemical method, being intensively studied, appeared to provide
much higher concentrations of ozone in oxygen than any other method by using
specially designed equipment and carefully controlled conditions, such as low
temperatures.

Some doubtful methods for ozone generation attributed to various chemical reactions
were described, such as, for example, decomposition of permanganate and dichromate
with sulphuric acid. This reaction was found to form a gas able to oxidise iodide to
molecular iodine solely due to the presence of chloride impurities. The confirmation of
ozone emission by the reaction of barium peroxide with acids was also lacking; the fog
containing hydrogen peroxide appeared to be the reason for iodine extraction in starch-

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iodide method of analysis: hydrogen peroxide was found to pass through water traps.
Formation of ozone in air passing over hot platinum wire was claimed based on odour
and starch-iodide tests, but these results were later attributed to nitrogen oxides.

The breakthrough in ozone preparation was achieved by Ernst Werner von Siemens
(1816-1892), the founder of Siemens & Halske, predecessor of the famous Siemens AG.
Siemens applied the high voltage transformer developed by Heinrich Daniel Rühmkorff
(1803-1877), who invented in 1851 the Rühmkorff's induction coil able to produce
sparks more than 30 cm in length. This coil was used in the first radio transmitters, X-
ray generators and some other electrical and electronic devices. In a paper on
electrostatic induction published in 1857 Siemens described a silent discharge apparatus
for preparing ozone from air or oxygen. In his later years Siemens considered his
discharge configuration for the generation of ozone as one of his most important
inventions. It is interesting to note, that he never applied for a patent for this
configuration, although he received many patents on other subjects. A few years after
Siemens’ original publication, Thomas Andrews and P. G. Tait in 1859 proposed in
their “Second Note on Ozone” published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
the name “silent discharge”, which still is frequently used together with corona
discharge. In such equipment it became routinely possible to achieve ozone
concentrations in oxygen on the order of 5%, and commercial equipment for generating
ozone utilizing Siemens’ discovery eventually became available. By the end of the 19th
century, the silent discharge had displaced other procedures in laboratory practices.
Siemens and Halske, as well as other companies supplied laboratory and industrial
equipment for generating ozone, and the Berthelot tube had become the device of
choice in ozone generation instruments. The Ullmann’s encyclopaedia issued in 1920
indicates Siemens & Halske ozone generators’ design as the predominant on the ozone
generation market.

1. 2. 1869-1900

The idea that ozone was formed by combination of an atom of oxygen with a neutral
oxygen molecule was first published by C. Than in 1870 in “Journal für Praktische
Chemie” and gained wide acceptance even without direct evidence:

O + O2 -> O3

1. 2. 1. Electrical Discharge for Ozone Production

By the time under discussion the silent discharge method for preparing ozone became
preferable for laboratory and industrial use. A number of papers and patents appeared
describing variations in the design and operation of such equipment, summarized later
by encyclopaedia and review articles in the end of 19th century.

The quintessence of any ozone generator is the silent discharge tube through which
oxygen or air flows with application of high voltage alternating current as a dielectric-
barrier discharge (DBD) maintained in a narrow annular gap between two coaxial glass
tubes by an alternating electric field of sufficient amplitude. The novel feature of this
discharge apparatus was that the electrodes were positioned outside the discharge

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chamber and were not in contact with the plasma.

The actual discharge was established in 1880s to be necessary for formation of ozone,
not only the applied high potential. Such tubes have been described as “Berthelot tubes”
due to, most probably, its detailed description with drawings and instructions for
construction and operation in 1877 by Marcellin Pierre Eugène Berthelot (1827-1907),
the Professor of Organic Chemistry of the Collège de France in Paris.

During the second half of 19th century the ozone synthesis in silent discharge cells was
intensively studied. In fact, ozone synthesis was the first application of silent discharge
in history, others,such as abatement of gaseous emissions and treatment of surfaces,
were offered much later. The use of oxygen rather than air was preferred for higher
yields of ozone and avoidance of nitrogen oxides. Both dry and moist oxygen could be
used but the best results were obtained using dry oxygen. Temperature was found to
play a critical role in determining the yield: the production of ozone doubled if the
operation temperature was reduced from 20 to -20-70 ºC. The increased frequency of
alternating current was found to regularly improve the yield of ozone up to 175 mg L-1
(about 9% vol.). Voltages applied for industrial ozone production ranged from 6 kV to
as high as 100 kV. The Siemens version of ozone silent discharge generator was found
by the end of 19th century to be much superior both in terms of yield of ozone and
reliability of operation as compared to Babo and Claus’s, Houzeau’s, Wright’s,
Boillot’s and Wills’s options.

1. 2. 2. Electrolysis of Aqueous Solutions

The electrolysis of aqueous solutions of acids led to Schönbein’s discovery of ozone
and was used by some of the early workers in the field for ozone preparation. It has the
potential for giving higher concentrations of ozone than any of the other conventional
methods: Herbert McLeod (1841-1923), Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Royal
Indian Engineering College at Surrey, UK, described concentrations of ozone as high as
16 % vol. Electrolysis was rarely used, however, probably due to the convenience of the
silent discharge method. From the other side, the aqueous solutions, from which ozone
and oxygen had been liberated, had considerable oxidizing power on their own,
containing persulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide found in the aqueous solution after
electrolysis.

1. 2. 3. Photochemical Formation of Ozone

The first report of photochemical formation of ozone was published in 1900 by Philipp
Eduard Anton von Lénárd (1862 – 1947), the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in
1905 for his research on cathode rays, Professor of the University of Heidelberg. He
described his experiments on the effect of ultraviolet light on a number of gases using a
zinc arc as light source. While no reaction was observed if a piece of window glass were
placed between the light source and a sample of air or oxygen (wet or dry), a very
strong ozone odour and immediate coloration of starch-iodide paper were observed
using a quartz window.

1. 2. 4. Miscellaneous Chemical Methods

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The reaction of white phosphorus with oxygen became less and less important for
preparation of ozone with the passage of time since it suffered mostly from low yields:
even modified procedures using solutions of potassium dichromate and sulphuric acid
instead of water did not increase ozone concentrations higher than 2.5 mg L-1 in air. The
kinetic studies of the phosphorus-oxygen reaction were conducted in the mid-1890s in
the laboratory under direction by Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (1852 – 1911), Professor
of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology at the University of Amsterdam, the first
winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901. The reaction kinetics suggested that the
kinetics supported the idea that oxygen molecules were cleaved into two oxygen atoms.

Another chemical reaction producing ozone beyond any doubt is the exothermic
reaction of elemental fluorine with water. Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan (1852 –
1907), the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in1906, Professor of École superieure
de pharmacie in Paris, reported concentrations of ozone as high as 14.4 % vol. by
bubbling fluorine gas through water. This reaction was never in use for ozone synthesis
to any extent.

Some other reactions were under the scope for ozone formation, although all of them
were found the be misleading due to the presence of impurities (mostly chlorine) and
imperfection of the analysis techniques, often limited to the odour and starch-iodide
test. In addition to the reaction of sulphuric acid with potassium permanganate,
dichromate or barium peroxide, crystallization of iodic acid was wrongly claimed to
produce ozone. The list of claims of ozone formation occurred to be incorrect includes:
waterfalls, salt evaporation installations, simultaneous formation of ozone and oxygen
by growing plants, reaction of heated potassium chlorate with manganese dioxide,
heating of a number of metal oxides, the passage of air over copper metal covered with
aqueous alkali and reactions of variety of organic compounds with oxygen under light
(photo-oxygenation). The latter error was due to formation of organic oxidising
substances.

Considerable attention in the second half of 19th century was paid to the issue of thermal
formation of ozone, whatever weird it sounds these days. Thermal instability was one of
the first properties of ozone described by Schönbein and was repeatedly confirmed by
others. Nonetheless, a number of reports of ozone formation in flames and over hot, up
to 1600 ºC, surfaces appeared. Interesting products such as hydrogen peroxide and
ammonium nitrite were identified in the hydrogen flame in purified air, however, the
quantities of ozone, if formed at all, were insufficient for methods of identification other
than odour.

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Bibliography

Becker, H. Erlwein, G. Ozon. In: Ullmann F., ed. Enzyklopädie der Technischen Chemie. Mangan-
Papergarne, pp. 639-656, Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin-Vienna, 1920 [This is the article on ozone in
the encyclopaedia of Applied Chemistry issued in 1920]
EPA report: 25 Years of the Safe Drinking Water Act: History and Trends. United States Office of
Water, EPA-816-F-00-006, Environmental Protection (4606), February 2000 [The paper is describing the
historical trends in safe water supply mostly in the USA]
Kogelschatz, U. Dielectric-barrier discharges: their history, discharge physics, and industrial applications.
Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, 23(1), 1-46 [The paper is the review invited by the journal; it
describes the achievements in silent discharge research and applications from the earliest publications
until the beginning of 21st Century]
Rubin, M. B. The history of ozone. The Schönbein period, 1839-1868 (2001) Bull. Hist. Chem., 26(1),
40-56 [The paper reviews the publications available on ozone studies from the earliest days of its
discovery]
Rubin, M. B. The history of ozone. II. 1869-1899 (2002) Bull. Hist. Chem., 27(2), 81-106 [The paper
overviews publications on ozone properties, reactions and applications for the end of 19th Century]
Shammas, N. K. and Wang L. K. Physicochemical treatment processes. In: Wang, L. K., Hung, Y.-T.,
and Shammas N. K., ed. Handbook of Environmental Engineering, v. 3, p. 315-357. Humana Press,
Totowa NJ, 2005 [The paper is the chapter in the Handbook handling the historical timeline in ozone
applications]

Biographical Sketch

Sergei Preis was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1959. Received degrees: Diploma in Chemical Engineering
Cum Laude, Tallinn University of Technology (TUT), Tallinn, Estonia, 1981; Candidate of Technical
Sciences of the USSR (equal to a Doctoral degree), Environmental Technology, TUT, Tallinn, Estonia,
1988; Doctor in Chemical Engineering, Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Lappeenranta,
Finland, 2002, Docent at LUT.
His work experience includes: Researcher and Senior Researcher at TUT and LUT, Head of Laboratory
at TUT. Previous publications:
Preis, S., Kamenev, S., Kallas, J., Munter, R. (1995) Advanced oxidation processes against phenolic
compounds in wastewater treatment. Ozone: Sci. Eng., 17, 399-418
Preis, S., Falconer, J. L., del Prado Asensio, R., Capdet Santiago, N., Kachina, A., Kallas, J. (2006)
Photocatalytic oxidation of gas-phase methyl tert-butyl ether and tert-butyl alcohol. Appl. Cat., B:
Environ., 64 (1-2), 79-87
Kornev, J., Yavorovsky, N., Preis, S., Khaskelberg, M., Isaev, U., Chen, B-N. (2006) Generation of
active oxidant species by pulsed dielectric barrier discharge in water-air mixtures. Ozone: Sci. Eng., 28
(4), 207-215
Research interests: Advanced oxidation processes application in water treatment, photocatalytical
oxidation of organic compounds in water and air; application of pulse DBD to water treatment

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